It's here!
Today, November 24, New York celebrates Thanksgiving with the 85th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The famed festival, which began in 1924, is the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit.
Ready for it 85th Anniversary edition, the Parade of wonder will feature 15 giant character balloons; 44 novelty/ornament balloons, balloonicles and balloonheads; 27 floats; 1,600 cheerleaders, dancers and performance group members; 800 clowns; 11 marching bands; a host of celebrity performers, and the one-and-only Santa Claus.
The fun begins at 9am and lasts the morning through 12:00pm. As usual, Broadway will be well represented with performances from Anything Goes, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Priscilla, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sister Act, and Newsies, in addition to appearances by Godspell's Hunter Parrish, Relatively Speaking's Steve Guttenberg and Laura Bell Bundy!
In keeping with tradition, the parade will be Broadcast on both NBC and CBS beginning at 9am
EST, with all Broadway numbers taking center stage during the early part of the broadcast
This year, NBC's offerings of interest to theater enthusiasts include:
- Newsies will take to the streets to perform the show-stopping tap number “King of New York” live in Herald Square during the first hour of the television broadcast, beginning at 9AM Eastern on NBC.
- Bette Midler's production of the Tony Award® winning hit musical PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT will perform a medley of dance-floor hits featuring a cast of 23 in the 9:30am half hour.
- Daniel Radcliffe will lead the cast of Broadway's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in the show-stopper "Brotherhood of Man" during the 9am hour.
- Broadway's Sister Act will bring down the streets with "Spread the Love," also during the 9am hour.
- At 9:35am Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will close out the Broadway numbers on the NBC broadcast with a medley from the blockbuster.
Also joining the festivities on NBC this year are world famous Radio City Rockettes, Rodney Atkins, the Big Apple Circus, Mary J. Blige, Cobra Starship, Neil Diamond, Michael Feinstein, The Fresh Beat Band, Cee Lo Green, Avril Lavigne, Shelby Lynne, Mannheim Steamroller, China Anne McClain, Scotty McCreery, Ingrid Michaelson, the cast and Muppets of Sesame Street, Savannah Outen, Power Rangers Samurai, Willard Scott, Straight No Chaser, US Naval Academy Glee Club, Johnny Weir, and Zendaya.
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Equally star-packed are the CBS offerings, which inlude:
- Anything Goes, will perform the Cole Porter classic "You're the Top" on the "CBSThanksgiving Day Parade" between 9:00AM-9:30AM.
- A pre-taped performance of "Radio" by the Memphis will air at a time to be determined between 9am and 12:00pm.
Also joining the roster of CBS talent for the Parade include Emmy Award-winning actress Margo Martindale, star of A Gifted Man, on the Network; Hunter Parrish, star of “Weeds” and the Broadway revival of Godspell; actor Steve Guttenberg, star of the new Broadway comedy Relatively Speaking; and model Lindsay Ellingson, who will be featured in The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Nov. 29.
Broadway and country music star Laura Bell Bundy will offer an additional viewpoint of the parade as its “on-the-street” reporter during the event, as she reports and interacts with the crowd during the Parade.
